Nevada #21
February 4 – 8, 2017 – 101 miles
Traveled from Mesa, AZ to Lake Mead, NV arriving about 5 PM, we are now in Pacific Time Zone. It was a beautiful drive and we were able to get a campsite at Lake Mead RV in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and on the bike trail. Good Wifi tonight!
Super Bowl Sunday and we are off to ride the River Mountains Loop Trail. It’s a loop so we road clockwise which we found out later was the correct decision since that seems to be the least strenuous . The scenery was beautiful, trail was paved, wide and very difficult. We considered turning around at 10 miles but pushed on to complete the 35 miles. This was a tough ride with a 2000 plus elevation change. Long, long uphill from Lake Mead to Boulder City.
We then had a long down hill to Henderson and onto the infamous Three Sisters. I have to confess we walked over the crest of two of those sisters. Then we had lots of steep uphill and downhill twists and turns until we returned to camp. We were exhausted and spent the next day recuperating.
After our rest day we were up early to ride the scenic Historic Railroad Trail which is in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The trail travels several hundred feet above Lake Mead and through five tunnels to end at Hoover Dam. The tunnels were blasted out in 1930 for trains to pass through carrying stone to the dam site. Views of Lake Mead were amazing and each tunnel had its own unique features.
That same afternoon we went into Henderson, NV and road Pacific Railroad Trail and the 215 Trail. While this was a good ride it seemed a bit blah after the beautiful scenery in National Rec Area. One highlight – on our return it was a slight downhill for about 8 miles. Fast and fun!!
Lenny had been wanting to try electric bikes and found Pedego Bikes in Henderson that rented them by the day. So the next day we headed out for an electric bike adventure. We loaded the bikes on our rack and went off to ride the River Mountains Loop Trail again. I was a skeptic but this was fun! When we finished we were tired and felt like we had a good work out. We were concerned that the batteries may not last for the challenging 35 miles so we probably worked harder then necessary. Howard, the owner was really excited that we had ridden the entire trail and only used half of the charge.
- River Mountains Trail Loop
- Historic Railroad Trail
- Pacific Railroad Trail and 275 Trail